Jump to content

Time Inc.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 216.6.186.85 (talk) at 11:51, 14 October 2018. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Time Inc.
Company typeSubsidiary
Industry
FoundedNovember 28, 1922; 101 years ago (1922-11-28)
FoundersHenry Luce
Briton Hadden
DefunctJanuary 31, 2018; 6 years ago (2018-01-31)
FateAcquired by Meredith Corporation
Headquarters225 Liberty Street,
New York City, New York
,
United States
Key people
Joseph A. Ripp
(Executive Chairman)
Rich Battista
(President and CEO)[1]
RevenueDecrease US$3.1 billion (2015)[2]
Decrease −US$823 million (2015)[2]
Decrease −US$881 million (2015)[2]
Total assetsDecrease US$4.8 billion (2015)[2]
Total equityDecrease US$1.8 billion (2015)[2]
Number of employees
7,200 (2016)[3]
ParentTime Warner (1990-2014)
Meredith Corporation (2018–present)
Divisions
  • Time Inc. International
  • Time Inc. India
Subsidiaries

Time Inc. was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922 by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New York City. It owned and published over 100 magazine brands, including its namesake Time, Sports Illustrated, Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine, Fortune, People, InStyle, Life, Golf Magazine, Southern Living, Essence, Real Simple, and Entertainment Weekly. It also had subsidiaries which it co-operated with the UK magazine house Time Inc. UK, whose major titles include What's on TV, NME, Country Life, and Wallpaper. Time Inc. also co-operated over 60 websites and digital-only titles including MyRecipes, Extra Crispy, TheSnug, HelloGiggles, and MIMI.[5]

In 1990, Time Inc. merged with Warner Communications to form the media conglomerate Time Warner (now AT&T-owned WarnerMedia). This merger lasted until the company was spun off on June 9, 2014.[6] In November 2017, competing publisher and media company Meredith Corporation announced that it would acquire Time Inc. for $2.8 billion. The acquisition was completed on January 31, 2018.[7][8] Meredith sold Time Inc to Marc Benioff and his wife, of Salesforce.com in September 2018, with plans to have the magazine free-standing.[9]

History

Beginnings

Nightly discussions of the concept of a news magazine led its founders Henry Luce and Briton Hadden, both age 23, to quit their jobs in 1922. Later that same year, they formed Time Inc. Having raised $86,000 of a $100,000 goal, the first issue of Time was published on March 3, 1923, as the first weekly news magazine in the United States.[10] Luce served as business manager while Hadden was editor-in-chief. Luce and Hadden annually alternated year-to-year the titles of president and secretary-treasurer. Upon Hadden's sudden death in 1929, Luce assumed Hadden's position.

Luce launched the business magazine Fortune in February 1930 and created/founded the pictorial Life magazine in 1936, and launched House & Home in 1952 and Sports Illustrated in 1954. He also produced The March of Time radio and newsreel series. By the mid-1960s, Time Inc. was the largest and most prestigious magazine publisher in the world. (Dwight Macdonald, a Fortune staffer during the 1930s, referred to him as "Il Luce", a play on the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, who was called "Il Duce".) Once ambitious to become Secretary of State in a Republican administration, Luce penned a famous article in Life magazine in 1941, called "The American Century", which defined the role of American foreign policy for the remainder of the 20th century, and perhaps beyond.[11]

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, aware that most publishers were opposed to him, issued a decree in 1943 that blocked all publishers and media executives from visits to combat areas; he put General George Marshall in charge of enforcement. The main target was Luce, who had long opposed FDR. Historian Alan Brinkley argues the move was "badly mistaken", for had Luce been allowed to travel, he would have been an enthusiastic cheerleader for American forces around the globe. But stranded in New York City, Luce's frustration and anger expressed itself in hard-edged partisanship.[12] Luce, supported by Editor T. S. Matthews, appointed Whittaker Chambers as acting Foreign News editor in 1944, despite the feuds Chambers had with reporters in the field.[13]

In 1963, recommendations from Time Inc. executive David Brumbaugh based on how it delivered magazines led to the introduction of ZIP codes by the United States Post Office. In the 1950s, Brumbaugh made presentations to the Post Office Department to explain how Time Inc. was using a zoning system to speed the delivery of its magazines. Although the Post Office Department had instated zones in 1943, they were inconsistently applied. As cited in FYI, Time Inc.’s internal newsletter “‘Fewer than 40% of the cities were properly zoned,’ he recalls. ‘I went to the Post Office Department and showed them how we were making the zone system work.’”[14]

Luce, who remained editor-in-chief of all his publications until 1964, maintained a position as an influential member of the Republican Party.[11] Holding anti-communist sentiments, he used Time to support right-wing dictatorships in the name of fighting communism. An instrumental figure behind the so-called "China Lobby", he played a large role in steering American foreign policy and popular sentiment in favor of Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek and his wife Soong Mei-ling in their war against the Japanese. (The Chiangs appeared in the cover of Time eleven times between 1927 and 1955.[15])

Merger

The merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications was announced on March 4, 1989.[16] During the summer of that same year, Paramount Communications (formerly Gulf+Western) launched a $12.2 billion hostile bid to acquire Time Inc. in an attempt to end a stock swap merger deal between Time and Warner Communications. This caused Time to raise its bid for Warner to $14.9 billion in cash and stock. Paramount responded by filing a lawsuit in a Delaware court to block the Time/Warner merger. The court ruled twice in favor of Time, forcing Paramount to drop both the Time acquisition and the lawsuit, and allowing the formation of the two companies' merger which was completed on January 10, 1990. However, instead of the companies becoming defunct, the impact of the merger and its resultant financial shock wave gave off a new corporate structure, resulting in the new combined company being called "Time Warner".[17][18]

In 2008, Time Inc. launched Maghound, an internet-based magazine membership service that featured approximately 300 magazine titles from both Time Inc. brands and external publishing companies.[19] On January 19, 2010, Time Inc. acquired StyleFeeder, a personal shopping engine.[20]

In August 2010, Time Inc. announced that Ann S. Moore, its chairman and chief executive, would step down as CEO and be replaced by Jack Griffin, an executive with Meredith Corporation, the nation's second-largest publisher of consumer magazines.[21] In September 2010, Time Inc. entered into a licensing agreement with Kolkata-based ABP Group, one of India's largest media conglomerates, to publish Fortune India magazine and the yearly Fortune India 500 list.[22] Griffin was ousted after a brief tenure, eventually being replaced by Laura Lang, who served about a year.[23][24]

Split

On March 6, 2013, Time Warner announced plans to spin-off Time Inc. into a publicly traded company.[25] Time Warner's chairman/CEO Jeff Bewkes said that the split would allow Time Warner to focus entirely on its television and film businesses, and Time Inc. to focus on its core print media businesses.[26] It was announced in May 2014 that Time Inc. would become a publicly traded company on June 6 of that year.[27] The spinoff was completed on June 9, 2014.[28] As of September 13, 2016, Rich Battista was promoted to president and CEO, replacing Joseph A. Ripp.

Time Inc. purchased American Express Publishing Corporation's suite of titles, including Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine, Departures, Black Ink and Executive Travel on October 1, 2013.[29] On January 14, 2014, Time Inc. announced that Colin Bodell was joining the company in the newly created position of Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer.[30] However, he was let go May 19, 2016[31] On February 5, 2014, Time Inc. announced that it was cutting 500 jobs.[32] However, most of the layoffs are at American Express Publishing.[25] From April 2014 to mid-2017, the Chairman of Time Inc. was Joseph A. Ripp,who had been Chief Executive since September 2013 and continued as Executive Chairman when replaced as CEO by Battista.[33][34] Though Ripp had intended to remain Executive Chairman until 2018[35], he wound up leaving the board in 2017 and John Fahey served as non-executive chairman for the months prior to the company's sale to Meredith.[36] On May 28, 2015, Time Inc. announced the purchase of entertainment and sports news site FanSided.[37][38] In July 2015, Time Inc. acquired League Athletics in Tucson, SportsSignup in Saratoga Springs, and iScore in Los Alamitos.[39][40] The three companies will be a part of Sports Illustrated Play.[41][42]

On February 11, 2016, Time Inc. announced that it has acquired Viant, a leading people based marketing platform and owner of MySpace.[43] In February 2017, it was reported that Meredith Corporation and a group of investors led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. were considering purchasing Time Inc.[44] In 2016, Time Inc. acquired Bizrate Insights.[45] On April 28, 2017, the company's board of directors dropped the plan of selling the company and instead focus on growth strategies.[46]

On November 26, 2017, it was announced that Meredith Corporation would acquire Time Inc. in a $2.8 billion deal. $640 million in backing will be provided by Koch Equity Development, but the Koch family will not have a board seat or otherwise influence the company's operations.[47][48] In January 2018, Meredith removed signage and references to Time, Inc., and Time, Inc. website was redirected to the Meredith's website.[49]

In March 2018, only six weeks after the closure of the deal, Meredith announced that it would lay off 1,200 employees, and explore the sale of Time, Fortune, Money, and Sports Illustrated. The company felt that these brands did not align with its core, lifestyle-oriented properties.[50]

In September 2018, Meredith announced that it would re-sell Time to Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne for $190 million. Although Benioff is the chairman and co-CEO of Salesforce.com, Time will remain separate from the company, and Benioff will not be involved in its daily operations.[9]

Leadership

In the early years, when the company was just Time magazine, Luce served as business manager while Hadden was editor-in-chief, and they annually alternated the positions of president and secretary-treasurer.On Hadden's sudden death in 1929 Luce took his position and business management was entrusted to Roy E. Larsen, who had been one of their first hires. Luce cultivated a philosophy of "church and state", where the editorial and business management were separate up to the board of directors level. (This was functionally ended with the departure of McManus from the Time Warner board, and formally by Ripp in 2013).[51]

Editors-in-Chief

McManus left the board of what had become Time Warner shortly before retiring,[52] and his replacement Norman Pearlstine and successors John Huey (2006-2012) and Martha Nelson (2013) were never directors of the parent.The title was then abolished.

Presidents

  • Luce (alternating with Hadden to 1929) to 1939
  • 1939-1960 Roy E. Larsen (then chairman executive committee to 1969,then vice chairman to shortly before his death in 1979)
  • 1960-1969 James A. Linen[53]
  • 1969-1980 James R. Shepley[54]
  • 1980-1986 J. Richard Munro
  • 1986-1990 Nicholas J. Nicholas Jr.

Linen became Chairman of the Executive Committee for a time after serving as president, then was succeeded by Shepley, who retained that position for a time after he, in turn, stepped down as president.

Chairmen of the Board

  • 1929-1942 Henry Luce
  • 1942-1960 Maurice T. Moore (husband of Luce's sister Elisabeth Luce Moore)
  • 1960-1980 Andrew Heiskell
  • 1980-1986 Ralph P. Davidson[55]
  • 1986-1990 J. Richard Munro

Davidson also served as Chairman of the Executive Committee after stepping down as Chairman of the Board. Munro was Chairman of the Executive Committee of Time Warner from 1990 to 1996.

Chief executive officers

  • 1964?-1980 Heiskell
  • 1980-1990 Munro

On the merger with Warner Communications Munro and then Nicholas were co-CEOs of Time Warner with Steve Ross until 1992 when Ross squeezed Nicholas out.[56] Gerald M. Levin, who had come up through Time's non-publishing operations, succeeded Ross later that year and in 2002 was succeeded by Richard Parsons who had never been connected to legacy Time Inc. (his successor Jeff Bewkes, leader of the parent when Time Inc. was spun off, had like Levin come from the non-publishing operations).

Heads of Time within a parent

The Time, Inc. (the comma remained part of the formal title until the Warner merger but the company ceased to use it in 1933)[57] corporate entity diversified out of publishing in the 1970s and 1980s, purchasing what was later spun off as Temple-Inland paper company and various broadcasting and cable television operations such as HBO and what became Time Warner Cable. As the distinction between the overall corporation and the magazine operation grew, the position that had been "Group Vice President, Magazines" or "Executive Vice President, Magazines" became president and chief executive of a "magazine group" in 1985[58] (under Kelso F. Sutton to 1986,and then Reginald K. Brack Jr.)[59] and then became president and CEO of a newly incorporated subsidiary,"The Time Inc. Magazine Company" in 1988[60] (initially with John A. Meyers as chairman). In 1992, Time Warner reorganized so that the non-magazine parts of Time Inc. came directly under the parent and the Time Inc. name was downgraded to only include the magazine company, so the officers of the "Magazine Company" became the officers of what was now Time Inc. Later that year, CEO Brack shifted to chairman with Don Logan as president; he stepped down in favor of Logan as CEO in 1994 and chairman in 1997.[61] Logan moved up to a group oversight position including additional Time Warner operations in 2002 (Ann S. Moore succeeding him at the magazine operation) and left the company in 2005. Leaders after Moore are noted above.

References

  1. ^ Spangler, Todd (September 13, 2016). "Rich Battista Named Time Inc. CEO As Joe Ripp Steps Aside for Health Reasons". Variety. Los Angeles: Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved September 13, 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d e "TIME Income Statement - Balance Sheet - Cash Flow - Time Inc. Common Stock Stock - Yahoo Finance".
  3. ^ Yahoo! Finance Staff. "Time Inc. Profile". Yahoo! Finance. New York City: Oath Inc. Retrieved May 29, 2016.
  4. ^ Dave, Paresh (October 19, 2015). "Why Zooey Deschanel's media startup HelloGiggles sold to Time Inc". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles: Tronc, Inc. Retrieved October 19, 2015.
  5. ^ "Time Inc. Acquires HelloGiggles, a Leading Mobile and Social Millennial Women's Lifestyle Brand". October 19, 2015. Retrieved June 6, 2016.
  6. ^ Lieberman, David (June 9, 2014). "Time Inc Shares Slip As Magazine Company Goes Public". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved July 28, 2014.
  7. ^ "Meredith Corporation Announces Completion Of Time Inc. Acquisition And Reports Fiscal 2018 Second Quarter And First Half Results" (Press release). Meredith Corporation. January 31, 2018. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
  8. ^ Hays, Kali (February 1, 2018). "Time Inc., Now Meredith and More Changes to Come". Women's Wear Daily. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
  9. ^ a b Shu, Catherine (September 17, 2018). "Marc and Lynne Benioff will buy Time magazine from Meredith for $190M". TechCrunch. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
  10. ^ "History of TIME". Time. New York City: Time Inc. Retrieved June 6, 2016.
  11. ^ a b "Henry R. Luce: End of a Pilgrimage". Time. New York City: Time Inc. March 10, 1967. Retrieved November 28, 2017.
  12. ^ Brinkley 2010, pp. 302–303.
  13. ^ Brinkley 2010, pp. 322–393.
  14. ^ "Time, Inc". Retrieved March 29, 2018.
  15. ^ "Time magazine historical search". Time. New York City: Time Inc. Archived from the original on June 30, 2012. Retrieved June 19, 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  16. ^ "Time Inc. and Warner to Merge, Creating Largest Media Company". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. March 5, 1989.
  17. ^ Leaf, Clifton (February 2, 2018). "On Groundhog Day, A Meditation on the Healthiness of Renewal". Fortune. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
  18. ^ Bill Saporito,"The Inside Story of Time Warner",Fortune,November 20,1989
  19. ^ "The Netflix Hope: Time Inc's Maghound Set To Launch in Sept". Forbes. June 27, 2008. Retrieved July 28, 2014.
  20. ^ Wauters, Robin (January 19, 2010). "Confirmed:Time Inc. buys personal shopping engine StyleFeeder". TechCrunch. United States: Oath Inc. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  21. ^ Carr, David (August 4, 2010). "Ex-Meredith officer to be Time's chief". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  22. ^ Goyal, Anubhav (September 27, 2010). "Fortune launches Indian edition". Media Newsline. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  23. ^ "Time Inc. names ad firm chief as new CEO"
  24. ^ "Magazine publisher Time Inc. taps veteran executive Joe Ripp to be CEO"
  25. ^ a b Steigrad, Alexandra (February 5, 2014). "Time Inc. Lays Out Restructuring". WWD. Retrieved February 5, 2014.
  26. ^ Lieberman, David (March 6, 2013). "Time Warner plans to spin off Time Inc". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved April 20, 2013.
  27. ^ Lieberman, David (May 8, 2014). "Time Inc To Go Public On June 6". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved July 28, 2014.
  28. ^ "Time Warner (TWX) Completes Time Inc. (TIME) Spinoff". TheStreet.com. June 9, 2014. Retrieved July 28, 2014.
  29. ^ "Media It's Official: Time Inc. Buys AmEx's Food & Wine, Travel & Leisure Magazines". Ad Age. September 10, 2013. Retrieved October 11, 2013.
  30. ^ "Time Inc. Names Colin Bodell Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer". Business Wire. January 14, 2014. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
  31. ^ Kelly, Keith (May 9, 2016). "Time Inc. fires CTO Colin Bodell". New York Post. Retrieved June 6, 2016.
  32. ^ Kaufman, Leslie (February 4, 2014). "Time Inc. to Cut 500 Jobs Ahead of Spinoff". The New York Times. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
  33. ^ "Joseph A. Ripp". Bloomberg. Retrieved May 31, 2015.
  34. ^ "TIME INC" (PDF). Edgar Online. Retrieved June 6, 2016.
  35. ^ Ingram, Mathew (September 13, 2016). "Time Inc. CEO Joe Ripp Steps Down As New Chief Promises Growth Is Coming". Fortune. Retrieved August 6, 2018.
  36. ^ "John Fahey Appointed Non-Executive Chairman of Time Inc.; Dan Rosensweig Nominated to Board of Directors". Business Wire. May 10, 2017. Retrieved August 6, 2018.
  37. ^ "Time Inc. acquires FanSided, a sports and entertainment digital network". Sports Illustrated. May 26, 2015. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
  38. ^ Steigrad, Alexandra (May 26, 2015). "Time Inc. Buys FanSided, Talks Future Deals". Women's Wear Daily. Retrieved November 28, 2017.
  39. ^ Steigrad, Alexandra (July 7, 2015). "Time Inc. Invests in Sports Illustrated With Three Acquisitions". Women's Wear Daily. Retrieved November 28, 2017.
  40. ^ Yu, Roger (July 8, 2015). "Time Inc. expands youth sports business with acquisitions". USA Today. Retrieved November 28, 2017.
  41. ^ Spangler, Todd (February 17, 2016). "Time Inc. Acquires Two YouTube Auto Channels". Variety. Retrieved June 6, 2016.
  42. ^ Business Wire Staff (July 7, 2016). "Time Inc. Creates Sports Illustrated Play, a New Business Devoted to Youth Sports". Business Wire. Retrieved June 6, 2016. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  43. ^ Lunden, Ingrid (February 11, 2016). "Time Inc Acquires Viant, Owner Of Myspace And A Vast Ad Tech Network". TechCrunch. United States: Oath Inc. Retrieved February 11, 2016.
  44. ^ Trachtenberg, Jeffrey (February 7, 2017). "Meredith, Bronfman Move Forward in Effort to Acquire Time Inc". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved February 8, 2017.
  45. ^ O'Shea, Chris (September 7, 2016). "Time Inc. Buys Survey Company BizRate Insights". AdWeek. Retrieved June 7, 2017.
  46. ^ Ember, Sydney (April 28, 2017). "Time Inc. Decides Not to Sell Itself". The New York Times. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  47. ^ Nyren, Erin; Littleton, Cynthia (November 26, 2017). "Meredith Corp. Acquires Time Inc. in $2.8 Billion Koch Brothers-Backed Deal". Variety. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  48. ^ Ember, Sydney; Ross, Andrew (November 26, 2017). "Time Inc. Sells Itself to Meredith Corp., Backed by Koch Brothers". The New York Times. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  49. ^ Gold, Howard R. (February 1, 2018). "Who killed Time Inc.?". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
  50. ^ Spangler, Todd (March 21, 2018). "Meredith Laying Off 1,200, Will Explore Sale of Time, SI, Fortune and Money Brands". Variety. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
  51. ^ Advertising Age,"TIME INC SHAKEUP:Editors to report to business side, Editor-in-Chief Martha Nelson exits"
  52. ^ City Journal,"Time Bombs" by Stefan Kanfer
  53. ^ NY Times obituary
  54. ^ NY Times obituary
  55. ^ Washington Post obituary
  56. ^ Los Angeles Times,"Co-CEO Nicholas ousted in clash at Time Warner"
  57. ^ Guide to the Time Inc. Records Overview, New York University Library
  58. ^ "Time Inc. Thursday announced a restructuring of its magazine." United Press International. November 21, 1985. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
  59. ^ Chicago Tribune,"2 Time Inc. Execs Make a Job Swap"
  60. ^ Form of Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation
  61. ^ Levin, Gary (April 23, 1997). "Brack to exit slot as Time Inc. chair". Variety. Retrieved August 6, 2018.

Bibliography

  • Brinkley, Alan (2010). The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century. New York: Vintage Books. pp. 302–303, 322–393. ISBN 978-0679741541. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Time Inc..
Wikisource has original works by or about:
Time Inc.

Template:Meredith Corporation

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Time_Inc.&oldid=863993405"